Sunday, May 29, 2016

These are two samples of British military die-cast from the early 70s. Both are very similar, not only the type of cannon (Anti-Tank), colour and year (both WW2), but also their mechanism is similar. Both toys could actually fire projectiles, but, after so many years, the missiles are missing.

No. 625 by Dinky Toys is the 6 Pounder Anti Tank Gun from 1975. British made, this gun was premiered in the North African campaign, 1942. Later was adopted by the American army. THe Dinky model was made with great detail and realism, as you can see, the towing part is practicable, just like in the real cannons.

The cannon from Britains can be seen in this catalogue image, and the text written for it says:

BAT gun. No. 9720 Anti Tank gun can be mounted on Jeep or such small vehicle or just used as it looks sitting on the ground. Modern Military. 1973 till closing down. Modern Military Series.

BAT stands for Batallion Anti Tank and is also British made. This gun is slightly more modern, since it was designed and made in the early 50s. A very impressive weapon!

Thursday, May 26, 2016

The 14th issue of F.E.A. is out now. This number is again quite long: it includes 8 articles, one interview and all the usual sections (news, museums and books).

I wanted since a few numbers to include articles dealing with toylines or toy figures “for girls”, so this time, I wrote about Sylvanian Families, which I found great back in the 80s, and even greater today. They are still selling, and I am amazed by everything they offer.

I also interviewed Javier Aguilar, who is an experienced action figure collector from Spain and was the founder of Figuras En Acción.

The rest of the articles have been written by other colleagues and include topics like:

The TV Program “Un, Dos, Tres” and all its merchandising

Remco “American Defense” and similar figures

Warriors of Virtue

Two very nice MOTU bootleg lines from Spain

Three old Citroën DS 19 from three different makers

The Spanish cartoon Sylvan

Roman figures representing home gods. Were this the first “collectable” figures?

Hope you like this issue, please download and share it with whoever may like it!

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Buggys were quite popular in the 70s, they were simple, fun, could drive over sand (for example on the beach) and were associated with freedom and freshness. There were thousands of buggy toys, and this is one of them, made in Spain by Rico under license of Tonka.

In some Rico boxes it is clearly specified that the license comes from Tonka, although in this case it is not stated… A friend of this blog posted a comment in one of my old Tonka/Rico entries, telling me that there are some hints that Rico started manufacturing Tonka models without the license and after being warned, they turned everything legal.

I would like to prove this, maybe I can ask somebody at the Toy Museum from Ibi (when I finally get to visit it), or maybe, if you are reading this and you know something, you could leave a comment in this entry.

I love this buggy, it is sturdy as every other Sansón product, it has a nice colour and a sticker that gives it a very “hippie” look. The box is also very interesting: the buggy is depicted in green instead of red and there are some Sansón Trucks on the back: the car transporter, two fire trucks, an excavator…

I want to write one or two entries on Sansón trucks, but I always forget to take pictures of them. Hopefully I have another chance next and the entry will be published soon.

Sunday, May 22, 2016

This is the continuation of the previous entry. There are three more figure to comment.

Owen Hart is a wrestler, that surprisingly, I do not remember at all, Maybe at the time I watched wrestling on the Spanish TV, he was not yet well known. In any case, he was the brother of Bret Hart and it is sadly famous for having had an accident during a show that costed his life. I think he was quite good, and fought with the greatest. He was part of the Hart Foundation team (together with his brother), the New Foundation (with Jim Neidhart) and High Energy (with Koko B. Ware). The figure is represented with the Hart Foundation clothes (note the boots), but these clothes were also used for the High Energy Tag Team. The action feature is nice, but overused in the Hasbro series.

Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) is another "villain" that used to fight using illegal tricks and without any sport spirit or moral considerations. He looks a little bit like a street gang criminal. The figure is great and includes a gold necklace. Accesories are always welcome. The figure comes with a red vest that makes the figure recognisable over the others. The action feature is ok, but it is so common, that it is actually a bit boring.

Shawn Michaels in his white outfit from his solo career, also known as "The Heartbreak Kid" (HBK). At the time he had an argument and a fight with his ex-team mate Jannetty and became a villain. While at "the Rockers" he was the good guy. The figure is a bit boring, with the both arms down feature.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

The yellow series was the first one in which Hasbro changed the base colour of the backcard. In this case it is yellow, unlike all the previous waves, which had light blue background, and so, is this series also known as the "yellow series". It is a more graphic way to identify the figures that belong to a same wave.

There are 6 figures that we are going to comment for this wave. Three in this entry and three more in the next entry. The figures are:

Crush v2

Kamala

Nailz

Owen Hart

Razor Ramon

Shawn Michaels v2

The figure of Shawn Michaels was changed in the last moment, and in some catalogues there is a rare variant that has never been spotted yet (a real figure, I mean), and that features the Jake Snake Roberts punch. The prototype is painted with the same scheme as the figure we will see in the next entry.

Crush (Brian Adams) or Kona Crush is the same fighter that was part of the Demolition Tag Team, and was released in series 2 carded with Smash. Unfortunately, I cannot remember seeing him in action, but I think he played one the characters that the audience usually dislikes. The figure has a (in my opinion) quite boring action feature, but at least is nicely casted has has some distinctive colours.

Kamala (James "Jim" Harris), the Ugandan wrestler can be defined as exotic. The fights in which he participated were always fun, with unexpected twists and also quite spectacular. The figure is also very appealing and colourful. The jumping feature is one of my favorite ones and also one of the best ones in terms of "playability". The figure has a star on its belly, but there should be another version with a moon on the same position. This version should be ultra-rare, with only a few units ever made, but many figures have been customized and even repackaged with the moon. Personally I am sceptical about this kind of things. It looks a little bit like the Pimp Daddy Destro story, if you know what I mean.

Nailz (Kevin Wacholz) is also a very peculiar character. I love the concept and also the figure. I think this character was specially created to fight Big Boss Man in an epic match, but the WWF didn´t have the time to use it more, because Wacholz and Vince McMahon had some dispute and Wacholz was released from the WWF after only a few months in 1992. The story is quite dark, Wacholz claims he was given steroids. The figure is great, with the orange suit and the punch feature is not bad. One of my favorite figures.

Monday, May 16, 2016

I have commented it in previous entries, but I repeat it now. The Seat 131 is one of my favorite cars of all times, because it is a car we had in our family until 1993 or so. I have it several times in different scale by different manufacturers. Today, I am showing the Guisval models.

The car debuted in 1976 with two versions: a very rare "Fire Chief" one (nr. 27) and the more ordinary one in brown (nr. 32). Although the catalogue images look all the same, I show two different shades of brown, probably the colour was not even through the different batches that were built back in the 70s.

One year later, the "Fire Chief" version was removed and new white version "Police" was introduced (nr. 44). In 1980, the brown version would be replaced by a silver grey version (but kept the same nr. 32), and in 1981, this was the only version available. After that, the car disappears from the catalogues, but it is still available in blue with or without rally stickers.

1976Nr. 27 - Jefe de Bomberos (red with white doors)Nr. 32 - brown

1977, 1978, 1979Nr. 32 - brownNr. 44 - White "Policia"

1980Nr. 32 - GreyNr. 44 - White "Policia"

1981, 1982Nr. 32 - Grey

1984 on:Also available in blue.

In later years (up to the late 90s), the cast was reused and sold with rally stickers. This more modern models can be identified by its 4 spoke wheels or the 8 points inside a circle hubcap type. These have plastic base and are made with a worse quality. I also have some of these, I can show them maybe next time.